(“The ice is so rough and ungroomed!”)

A friend recently suggested I might have a ride on her horse out in the field—not for any schooling purpose but simply to enjoy his movement, his balance. I found that a hard concept to relate to.

Over time I’ve done lots of things on horses that were just plain fun. At the top of my list was galloping along the surf line on an empty beach on a horse who in my life I loved the most. Mornings spent fox hunting would qualify also. The feeling which courses through your veins as you come off a clean cross country round, for me anyway, falls into a different category. Achievement orientation rears its ugly head!

And so when offered the field ride on my friend’s horse, while I appreciated how much he had improved over the past months, what the horse and I would bring to each other is something different. If he feels good, why not would I concentrate on making him feel even better? That’s what I DO after all. And to do less would be like wearing your tux with your shirttail pulled out. A field ride would be special (sort of). But would it be fun?

Many years ago my little girlfriend of the time was going to Wheaton College (the Massachusetts one). The dorms then were built around a lovely pond, lined with tall trees and accented by an arched footbridge which bisected it. One of my girl’s classmates was a very talented figure skater—not Olympic class but a notch lower and aspiring for greatness. I asked her once if she ever wanted to skate on that frozen pond, triple Salchowing her way through the gently falling snowflakes. She met my question as though I were crazy. “Why in the world what I want to do that? The ice is so rough and ungroomed!” Guess that shut me up! She and I were envisioning her sport from entirely different perspectives.

And so might it be with any activity in which we are heavily invested. Give me a pocket full of quarters and send me to the batting cages, and I can flail around happily till my arms fall off. Don’t expect Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, or Ichiro Suzuki to approach that experience the same way.

Some things can be more fun if they’re just “fun.” Sometimes it’s too late for that.